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Monday Post Mortem 20th February, 2012
Click here if you wish to download the Hand Records (PDF).
Click here for a printable color version of the Post Mortem (in Word), and click here for a PDF monochrome version.
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As the Post Mortem is space-constrained, Board 7 could not be squeezed into the printed version, but on-line there is no such restriction, so here it is. This one is difficult, by the way, so good luck!
West North East South Pass Pass Pass 1♥ 1♠ 2♦ Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass
South leads a 4th best Spade Seven, won by North’s Ace. North shifts to the ♣Q which you win in Dummy.
At this point, it seems fair to assume that North has no more Spades (she didn’t return one at Trick 2). It would also be most surprising if South did not hold the A♥, he must have something for her vulnerable overcall. You have 8 top tricks, where’s the ninth?
One possibility, after winning the Club shift, is to play on Hearts, hoping that South has either ♥Q or ♥J, and no more than 3 Clubs. At Trick 3 you can finesse the ♥T, losing to South’s Queen as it happens, then duck a Club and win a Club. Now, if the second Heart finesse forces the Ace, and if South is now out of Clubs, you will make your 9 tricks.
That line of play works fine when South holds her actual hand, but will fail against: Hand A: ♠ Qxxxxx ♥ AQ ♦ x ♣ xxxx Hand B: ♠ Qxxxxx ♥ AQJ ♦ x ♣ xxx The aforementioned line of play fails against Hand A because South still has a Club left when she wins the second Heart. And it fails to Hand B because South takes three Heart tricks. Can you do find a line of play which works against South’s actual hand, also against these two impostors?
Assuming that South has all the Spades and the A♥, you can put her under pressure in the end-game. Win the Club shift, finesse the Heart, duck a Club, win the next Club, and run the Diamonds (making sure to count the number of Spades pitches made by South). South must come down to three cards, and two of those must be Spades. She’ll have no Clubs left because she is also hanging on to the A♥, but to no avail because you exit a Heart end-playing her, regardless of whether she started with any one of those hands above. It’s called a Strip Squeeze.
BUT, there’s a small flaw in the above analysis, see what it is? Yes, if South started with Hand B, you’ll lose the Heart finesse and duck the Club return, but North will win and unsportingly shift back to Hearts, earning the defense five tricks. What’s the solution? Yes, duck the first round of Clubs! Now the hand is ice-cold provided that South started with six Spades (almost certain), the ♥A, (surely she has that card), and at least one of the ♥Q and ♥J (most likely).
Keys to Success - Ducking the first round of Clubs (a farsighted play) - Placing South with most of the missing high cards - Throwing in South after cashing the minor winners (important to count Spade pitches along the way)
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West North East South 1♥ Pass 2♥ 2♠ ??
South does not expect her side to have game, and could just compete to 3♥. That’s not a good idea because, if the opponents bid 3♠, South knows full well that she will bid 4♥. The slow approach makes it easier for E-W to assess their game prospects correctly, so a better plan for South is bid 4♥ directly, and let the opponents guess what to do.
After South bids 4♥, West can hardly sit idly by with two Aces and 4-card support for Partner, so he lets himself be bounced into game.
In 4♠, Declarer has three top losers and, as the cards lie, an inescapable Club loser. To avoid down two, he must find the ♦Q. South leads the ♥Q, and Declarer ruffs the second round. After North has shown up with ♥AK, it hardly seems likely that she could also have a singleton Spade honor, so Declarer plays the ♠Q from hand. South wins, cashes her second trump, and exits with what? Not a Heart (gives up a ruff and sluff), so which minor? A Diamond looks dangerous (North might have the Ten or Jack, much to South’s chagrin), so South exits a Club. Of course, when North shows up with the ♣Q, there’s not much chance of Declarer misguessing the Diamond, surely North’s bidding showed less than 11 HCP.
If South somehow ends up declaring in Hearts she should make just 9 tricks, unless she is devious and West is having a particularly bad day. West leads a Spade, and Declarer cashes the second Spade and the ♥Q, then crosses to the ♥A. Trying some flim-flam, Dummy’s Club Ten is run around to West’s Jack (East playing the Seven). This feeble attempt at deception should fool nobody, but some Wests will thoughtlessly cash the ♦A now, allowing Declarer’s ♦Q to score the 10th trick. Careless, Mr West! East’s Seven (count signal) made it clear that Declarer started with 86 or 6 or K86. So, it cannot be wrong to exit with a low Club, making sure that the defense gets its quota of minor suit tricks.
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West North East South Pass 1♠ Dbl Pass 2♥ Dbl Pass 2♠ Dbl All Pass
North has a pretty good hand for her 2♥ bid. Over 2♠, it doesn’t seem right to bid 3♥ with that square hand, so she tries a Double, not specifically for penalties, just showing a maximum hand for the bidding so far. We like this bid (called by some an Action Double), but it sure makes life uncomfortable for South! She has a moderate hand for her bidding so far, with no reason to think that 3♥ is making, nor that 2♠ can be beaten. She chooses to pass, mainly because the opponents are vulnerable and she harbors hopes of +200. And +200 is exactly what N-S get defending 2♠ doubled. The Q♠ will not score a trick as Declarer has no way to get to the board for the losing finesse, but the defense cannot be stopped from scoring two Diamonds, three Clubs, and a Heart.
P.S. 3♥ can make, but probably won’t.
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West North East South Pass Pass 1♥ Pass 2♣ Dbl 4♥ All Pass
Aggressive bidding by N-S, it’s easy to see most pairs missing this thin Heart game. South’s 2♣ was Drury, a convention used opposite (potentially light) third seat opening bids. It shows invitational values in Partner’s major without getting the partnership too high if the opening bid is indeed light. Do you think that perhaps South is a little light for her Drury bid? Sure, it’s only 8 HCP, but a pretty decent hand nonetheless … there’s 4-card support … a couple of doubletons … and that lovely potential source of tricks in Spades (that Spade Ten is a very big card).
West’s Double showed Clubs, perhaps encouraging North to stretch to the Heart game (she doesn’t have a great hand, so that 4♥ bid is somewhat aggressive).
Against 4♥, East leads a low Club, won by Declarer’s Ace. Declarer is in a great contract, just making it will be a good board, so she takes the safe route to 10 tricks … trumps are drawn in three rounds, then the ♠K and the ♠A are cashed, and the ♠J is run around to East’s Queen, Declarer pitching a Club.
E-W missed their 5♣ sacrifice (that’s doubled down two, for -300). However, won’t be a good board for E-W if most of their counterparts are defending a Spade part-score. But will they? Some Wests will open 3♣ (not ideal with an outside Ace, but it’s always extra-tempting to preempt when White vs Red), and that’s likely to push N-S into a game that they might otherwise miss.
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Here's another lovely (but difficult) squeeze hand which could not be squeezed into the printed Post Mortem. It's Board 21 and it may look like a routine deal, and E-W will presumably play in 3NT, probably from the East side. It looks very much like 11 tricks and +460, but Deep Finesse tells us that Declarer can make 12 tricks. And so he can, but it’s not easy! Here's the layout:
South leads a Diamond, which Declarer wins in his hand with the Queen. Assuming reasonable luck in Clubs, and the ♦K with South (sure seems like it!), Declarer can count two Spades, a Heart, three Diamonds and five Clubs. That’s 11, can a 12th be far away? Maybe, it all depends on Declarer’s card-reading skills. After winning the first trick, he will rattle off five Clubs, inflicting severe discomfort on poor old South. She must come down to seven cards, let’s look at her dilemma (it’s really a trilemma, but SpellChecker objected to that): - She must come down to three Diamonds, otherwise Declarer will get her 12th trick in that suit. - If she doesn’t keep four Spades, then Declarer has an easy route to a 12th trick, just by playing a Spade to the King and then ducking a Spade - If she keeps three Diamonds and four Spades then that leaves room for zero Hearts! That means that she exposes her Partner to a finesse in Hearts for the 12th trick.
In reality, South will not come down to four Spades and three Diamonds, she’ll pitch at least one Spade, hoping that North started with four of them, after which it is hard to see Declarer not making 12 tricks. Squeeze enthusiasts will recognize this one right away, it’s a Guard Squeeze where South is squeezed in three suits, in one suit of which (Hearts here) she must retain a card to protect her Partner from a finesse.
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West North East South 1♥ 2♥ 2♠ 3♠ 4♦ Dbl ??
North’s
Michaels Cue-Bid
showed Spades and a minor, so East’s 2♠ becomes a cue-bid, showing a
limit raise or better in Hearts. West’s 4♦
was a cue-bid, of course, and North’s Double was
The Double gives East additional options. Is your partnership on sure ground here as to the respective meanings of Pass, Redouble and 4♥? The first thing to decide is the relative meanings of Pass and 4♥, and different interpretations are in use: - One school of thought is that Pass is always the weakest bid in these situations, and we have to say that this has an intuitive ring to it. Incidentally, this is the treatment that is defined in SAYC. - The other school of thought is that bidding 4♥ here is the weak action, and strangely enough this also seems intuitive, at least if you follow the Principle of Fast Arrival, whereby going straight to game (in a forcing auction) shows weakness. This is the treatment favored by Bridge World Standard (a “consensus” system based on a poll of a couple of hundred experts)
There you have it, something else for you to agree with Partner. How about a Redouble? This is surely encouraging for the purposes of slam, and a reasonable interpretation is that it also shows a control in Diamonds.
With the above in mind, what is your bid over the Double? We would make whatever bid is encouraging, and by our failure to redouble, it’s reasonable for Partner to assume that we have at least two Diamond losers.
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